What about the ‘unhoused’? Tarrant residents question bonds for upscale retirement center
Tarrant County commissioners approved tax-exempt revenue bonds Tuesday totaling $78 million for Trinity Terrace, an upscale retirement and assisted living facility in downtown Fort Worth.
Approved by a 4-1 vote, the bond will be used to refinance bonds issued in 2014 that financed and refinanced construction work and updates on the facilities at Trinity Terrace, according to commissioners court documentation.
The average monthly cost for Trinity Terrace is over $5,100 per resident, according to the senior care informational website Family Assets.
The issuer of the bond is the Tarrant County Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corporation, which is listed as one of the county’s boards and commissions.
The county could put such money to better use, according to Tarrant County residents who spoke ahead of the vote.
The bond package “is a really good example of how those who’ve had access to the system know how to access big hunks of money,” said former state Rep. Lon Burnam, a Democrat from Fort Worth. The county has a responsibility to appropriate government resources to those with less access to them, he said.
“We should be doing the same for the unhoused,” he said.
Trinity Terrace is owned and operated by a nonprofit called The Cumberland Rest Inc. It “provides charitable care without charge or at amounts less than its established rates to residents who meet certain criteria under its charity care policy,” according to commissioners court documentation.
Brian Young, executive director of The Cumberland Rest, did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Fort Worth resident Jackee Cox told the commissioners that she did not agree with the designation of Trinity Terrace as a charitable organization. She mentioned large buy-in amounts and high monthly fees to live there.
“It is more or less your luxury living facility,” she said. “If I were picking charitable organizations to donate to, I would not pick the residents of some of the wealthiest people in the city of Fort Worth. It is not what I would consider the best charitable organization.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons was the only member of the commissioners court to speak on the matter and the only one to vote against approving the bonds.
The designation of Trinity Terrace as a charitable healthcare facility is “really pushing the boundaries and stretching the definition of being a healthcare facility,” she said. “I can’t make a distinction between Trinity Terrace, the upscale community with 30 different floor plans between three towers, and what is billed in this application as a health facility.”
The county will not be liable for repayment of the principle or interest of the bond, according to commissioners court documentation.
County Economic Development Manager Maegan South did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Simmons said ahead of the vote that she sought information on the bonds from Randal Dean, board secretary for the Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corporation, and did not get the answers she was after.
“There are a number of questions he couldn’t answer for me, so I’m unable to determine whether Trinity Terrace meets the criteria, and most importantly, the governmental intent for issuance of these bonds under the finance corporation’s mission and its purpose,” she said.
The bond was not the first to garner residents’ disapproval. Those who spoke Tuesday and others called a bond package for a $59 billion landfill company “corporate welfare” and urged the county commissioners to vote against it in June.
The commissioners voted to approve the bond for the landfill company, but later rescinded that approval after it was discovered that the Star-Telegram had failed to publish the notice of public hearing for the initiative.
